Thrive-In
Promoting self-care and mindfulness habits through a guided journal app
Role: Researcher, UI/UX Designer
Timeline: April - May 2021
Project: End-To-End App Design (Self-Initiated)
Overview
Thrive-In. is a guided journaling app created from the belief that adding more mindfulness and self-reflection to your daily routine can help people relieve stress, have greater clarity, and be more intentional about the way they show up in their careers, relationships, and every other important area of their personal life.
Thrive-In. uses daily journal prompts to help users self-reflect in areas they want to grow and improve - while developing a consistent wellness routine.
Challenge
With stress being on the rise due to a global pandemic, racial injustices, and the basic everyday tasks that can easily overwhelm us over time, there is a greater need for practicing self-care and mindfulness in our daily lives.
Journaling and self-reflection is a simple way people can relieve stress, release negative thoughts, process their emotions, express gratitude, and coach themselves towards being and doing their best.
Even with knowing this, it can feel like a chore to stare at a blank page and come up with something to write about everyday
Solution
Instead of being overwhelmed by a blank screen or a list of questions, users will focus on answering one prompt per day in an area they want to reflect or improve in (such as health, work, or relationships).
Thrive-In. wants to help people build a simple, consistent journaling routine through using goals and guided prompts that help them to make self-reflection a habit, and leave each session feeling more calm, clear, and intentional about how they want to feel and show up in the world.
Phase 1: Empathize
Research Goals
- Gain insight into the motivations, benefits, and drivers that guide people towards journaling or other forms of self-care/mindfulness
- Identify the challenges and frustrations people face around journaling and developing consistent mindfulness routines
- Discover what features to include to deliver the best experience for users and turn journaling into a part of their daily routine
Competitor Analysis
I analyzed 4 competitors (other digital journaling apps) and did a deep dive into their features, design layout, and reviews - allowing me to better understand what users loved about each app, as well as any areas of improvement.
Surveys and Interviews
Once this was complete, the next step in the research phase was conducting surveys and interviews.
In total, I surveyed 15 people and conducted 3 interviews. Each participant met the criteria of being between ages 21-40 and having journaling experience (whether physically or digitally).
I wanted to get feedback from real people and answer questions like:
- What stops people from starting/following through on a journal practice?
- What are the benefits of digital journaling? What turns users off from using a digital journal and how can we improve this experience?
- Where does journaling fit into someone’s daily/weekly routine? What does a typical journaling session look like?
- What features do they find helpful in their fav self-care apps/websites?
Research Insights
Motivations
The biggest motivation participants shared was to process their thoughts as a way of releasing stress and anxiety. Based on the data sharing that participants also engage in other forms of self-care and mindfulness, it is clear that what motivates them to journal is a desire to grow personally and improve how they feel and show up on a daily basis.
Pain Points
- 46/7% of participants mentioned “finding time”, being consistent, or a lack of motivation as their biggest challenges when it comes to journaling
- Two other challenges that stood out during the surveys and interviews was privacy and judging their thoughts (wondering if they're journaling in the right way)
Needs & Expectations
When asked about what features would help improve their journaling experience, specifically with a digital app, participants shared the need for:
- Daily reminders
- Prompts or quotes to spark ideas (with the option to free-write)
- Security
- A way to easily access previous entries
- Mood/Feeling tracker and the ability to elaborate on their mood
Direct Quotes
“It is/was helpful to have a place to keep all my thoughts. When I switched to digital form, it was a great way to "dump" all my feelings while I was experiencing them so I can reflect back on it”
“Journaling itself doesn't feel challenging once I get started but sometimes I find myself unsure of what to write about. It's also easy to forget to journal on busier days.”
“Privacy: both for digital and physical diaries, I was very scared that it'll get leaked somehow.”
Phase 2: Define
Crafting The Persona
With the research complete, I kickstarted the Define phase by creating a persona based on the research findings. Due to the time constraints of this project, I focused on one persona to design for.
Mapping Our User’s Journey
With a clearer picture of who we’re designing for, the next step was a journey map. This helped me gain more empathy for my persona and how Thrive-In fits into his daily life. It also painted a clearer picture of what features would be most valuable at every step of the process.
What's The Flow?
The final step in the Define stage involved creating task and user flows to add more context to the user journey & inform how I created the sitemap.
Phase 3: Ideate
Before jumping into Figma I started off sketching a few key app screens. This allowed me to see how to best layout the content/features, and make changes quickly.
The goal was to not overwhelm users when they open the app but instead keep the focus on starting & completing a journal entry. Even if they only journal for a few minutes, just the act of showing up for themselves is a win.
During this process, the #1 question that led my design decisions was:
“How could I make it as easy (and desirable) as possible for my user to show up and practice mindfulness today?”
These sketches then turned into wireframes using Figma.
Phase 4: Design
Before adding UI elements to the design I spent a few hours thinking about the tone and feel I wanted for the app.
I researched what colors produced the most calming and stress-relieving effects and discovered blue and green were most ideal. I used light/pastel shades to create a calm digital environment for users.
For the logo, I added a lightbulb and heart into a journal to portray guided journaling as a way to process your thoughts, gain deeper insights, and practice self-care.
These elements came together to create the UI screens for the app.
Phase 5: Prototype
Conducting Usability Tests
As we know, it’s not enough to just design something “pretty”. Now it was time to test the app with real users. Because of the time constraints, I created a limited prototype and gave participants two scenarios:
Scenario #1: You’re an existing user who opens the app and wants to complete a guided journal entry. How do you go about performing this task?
Scenario #2: As you start your guided entry, you realize you don’t like the provided prompt and want to change it. How do you go about performing this task?
I conducted 3 moderated usability tests using a Figma mobile prototype and an iPhone to mimic the app experience as closely as possible.
Test Findings
Each participant found the app easy to navigate and completed each task quickly. The features that stood out and were mentioned by each participant included the Quick Prompts, Categories, and the ability to search through previous entries.
I gained a few insights from conducting this test:
Insight #1: This app can grow with our users
An insight gained from this usability test is that users want an app that grows with them and fits into their overall self-care/mindfulness routine.
Insight #2: Simple is often better
So many people prefer physical journaling because of how simple it is. With this app, the goal is to enhance users' journaling experience - and make it easier for them to turn this self-care practice into a habit.
Iterating On Feedback
I made a few priority revisions based on test findings. I focused on changes that would have the biggest impact on the user experience, while staying within the project scope and constraints.
Reflections
Lessons Learned
One lesson learned throughout this process is to always think holistically about products and how it fits into someone’s daily life. Users don’t always need something innovative and ground-breaking. Thinking about the way they usually do something and how you could improve that (even slightly) can often be enough to win people over.
The Quick Prompt, Categories, & Search features stood out to my usability testers because it allowed them to journal (or reflect back on a past entry) with greater intention and ease.
Future Roadmap
If I had more time to iterate on this app, I’d focus on these 3 areas:
- Personalized Onboarding: Asking questions and collecting data to provide a more personalized experience for users. This would help to prioritize which prompts, affirmations, and categories to display based on the user's intentions, moods, and areas they want to grow in.
- Gamification: I’d create new journal prompt sets that users can unlock after completing a set # of entries. This will provide greater incentive to show up and journal, as well as give users a wider range of topics to journal on.
- Accountability: I loved the suggestion of allowing users to have a “Friend/Community” feature where users could see their friends' activity, share entries, and hold each other accountable. This would allow users’ experience greater support and encouragement on their journey.
View Final Prototype